The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) on Wednesday organised mock tsunami drills at cyclone shelters of six coastal districts. This exercise was held as a part of the drill scheduled to be held simultaneously in 20 Indian Ocean nations, including India. The exercise aimed at testing the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS) and evaluating the system’s operational capacity, the efficiency of communications among the different concerned actors and the state of preparedness of national emergency services. The test also included evacuation of coastal communities in several countries, notably India and Malaysia. At the national level, the drill was coordinated by the ministry of earth sciences (MoES), the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the home ministry. The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad is one of RTSPs in the IOTWS setup. The ITEWC participated in this drill, both in its capacity as the National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) for India as well as one of the RTSPs for the Indian Ocean region. The national participants in the drill include the NDMA, MHA, Disaster Management Offices of all Coastal States/UTs, NDRF, Indian Coast Guard, Indian Navy and Critical Coastal Installations (Ports, Power Plants, SHAR, etc.). The drill named as Exercise IOWAVE 11 reenacted the events of December 26, 2004 with a 9.2-magnitude earthquake off the north west coast of Sumatra (Indonesia), followed by an ocean-wide tsunami. The OSDMA took a lead role for conducting the drill in six strategic tsunami-vulnerable locations in as many districts, Purunabandha in Ganjam, Narsinghpurpatna in Puri, Pipal in Jagatsingghpur, Ramnagar in Kendrapada, Nuagaon in Bhadrak and Krushnanagar in Balasore. The drill has been conducted with the active involvement of the community, taskforce members, cyclone shelter management and maintenance committees, Village Disaster Management Committees (VDMCs), PRI representatives, NGO partners and volunteers of the tsunami-prone villages linking the concerned Block and District Emergency Operation Centres. Multipurpose cyclone-shelters in these villages have been identified as the shelter places for the people during the drill. During the drill, the first bulletin was received by the OSDMA at 6.30 am regarding occurrence of an earthquake and possibilities of tsunami threat. The bulletin was immediately faxed to the District Emergency Operation Centres by the OSDMA. The local people at the field level were informed by SMS. Subsequent bulletins were issued by the INCOIS and sent to community as well as to the local administration. After receipt of the warning message from the OSDMA, emergency alertness by sirens was made at the cyclone-shelters at 7.15 am. Then, the village volunteers and the CSMMC taskforce members made a transact walk inside the villages and made people aware about a possible tsunami. Later, people started moving to cyclone-shelters. Physically-disabled and older people were brought to the cyclone-shelters by Handicap International volunteers and taskforce team members.